Young gay man injured in another K Rd attack

Another unprovoked attack in Auckland's Karangahape Road area has seen a young gay man hospitalised after being knocked to the ground and kicked in the head by two assailants.

Glbti community stalwart Karen Ritchie, who has been supporting the man, says he was about to get out of his car in a Karangahape Road side street at about 11.45 last Wednesday night when two youths asked him for cigarettes. Still in his car he said he didn't have any and showed them an empty packet. One of the pair then grabbed the key from the car's ignition and when the gay man got out to try to get them back he was attacked.

"All he knows after that is that he was lying dazed and in shock on the ground with the guys kicking him in the head," says Ritchie. A passing motorist flashed his headlights at the attackers, who fled, and then he came to the victim's assistance, she says.

The young man was treated overnight in hospital for a black eye and bruising. "He's home now and he's getting better," Ritchie says.

Apart from remembering that the two assailants were young dark men, possibly in their late teens, the victim is unable to remember any other identifying aspects of the pair. Police security cameras in the K. Rd area were not pointing at the seen of the attack at the time it occurred.

Karangahape Road has long been New Zealand's gayest street with a number of gay venues on the street or nearby. The attack is just the latest in a string of attacks on gay men in the area in the past year or more, the most recent being on December 28th (see link below).